Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 03).djvu/174

very populous and fertile, and yielded great abundance of rice, swine, fowls, wax, and honey. The natives say that there are gold mines in this island; and, since they say it, it must be true. The gold found there is very pure. When the governor was in that island there fell upon it—because of our sins and those of the natives, or God knows what—an extremely great plague of locusts, which has lasted three years and still continues. No field is sown which they do not destroy. A great famine and pestilence have sprung up among the natives of that island, so that more than half of them have died; and they will continue to die until God our Lord is pleased to remove his anger from over it. From that island to the island of Luzón it is about sixty leagues, and in the course is that of Mindoro. This is an island where much wax and honey is produced. It contains many gold mines, and rivers where gold is gathered. I have been all about it; on the farther coast, which is to the south, it is well populated, while on the northern coast is the village called Mindoro, as well as other thickly-populated rivers. Those who have not seen it or set foot upon it say that it contains about eight thousand men. I shall dare to affirm from what I have seen of it that it has more than fifteen thousand. It is very near the island of Luzón. Between this island and the others above named, lie many small islets, which are friendly, although they have but small populations. As I say, next is the island of Luzón, where the governor resides now, and which was settled in the manner above related. This island is thickly populated and large. The greater and better part of it is still to be conquered, I would say from what I have seen of the villages and land.